Deadline passes, but Abdo plea bargain still possible

Until we ran a story last weekend, I’ll bet you hadn’t thought much about Pfc. Naser Abdo, the Muslim infantryman from Fort Campbell, Ky., who is accused of plotting to blow up Fort Hood and a Killeen restaurant.

There’s a reason. Not much is happening, at least that has been worth reporting. Still, something has been afoot behind the scenes at the U.S. District Court in Waco. Right now, jury selection is scheduled for next Monday, but there are signs a trial might not happen.

Of course, it’s hard to know just what’s up in this case, which started off with a bizarre outburst from Abdo on his first appearance in court, crying out, ”Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, Iraq 2006! Nidal Hasan, Fort Hood 2009!”

He was referring to an Iraqi girl killed in 2006 and to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who faces the death penalty in the killing of 13 people in a Nov. 5, 2009 shooting spree on Fort Hood that left 32 others wounded.

The tantalizing clue had been the deadline for prosecutors and Abdo’s lawyer, D. Keith Dorsett, set to sign off on a plea bargain. It was moved from a week ago last Monday to yesterday.

That it passed without an agreement being submitted doesn’t necessarily mean a plea is off the table. There’s a gag order in the case issued by U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, so no one is saying anything. Dorsett chatted, but revealed nothing, when I called him recently. No one in the courthouse is talking, and the same is true for the U.S. Attorney’s office.

But the fact that Smith extended the deadline led several lawyers in our story, which ran Saturday, to speculate that they’re cutting a deal. Just why, naturally, is something of a mystery but one with possibilities.

The charges remain the same. Abdo, an AWOL soldier who already underwent an Article 32 hearing after the Army charged him with possessing child pornography on his personal computer, faces 10 years in federal prison on weapons violations charges.

He was indicted Aug. 9 on federal charges of possessing an unregistered destructive device and possessing a firearm and ammunition by a fugitive.

Curiously, no new charges have been filed, even though Killeen’s police chief, Dennis Baldwin, said just after Abdo’s arrest that the GI, who was just a week away from becoming a deserter, was plotting a terrorist attack.

If Abdo, a conscientious objector, had truly planned to wage jihad on his Army brethren and their families on and off Fort Hood, as the chief claimed, you’d think federal prosecutors would have charged him with a more serious offense.

Geoffrey Corn, a retired Army lawyer and professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, cautioned that it might not be so simple. Efficiency, he explained, will be the guide for how prosecutors handle the case. And as importantly we’re told that even if the deadline passes, as it has, a plea bargain could still occur. It could be revealed today or even Monday, as jury selection is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Waco.

“All it is, is an indication that the U.S. attorney knows what he wants – he knows the ultimate outcome that he wants, is going to be – and he’s assessed how he’s going to get there,” said Corn, who specializes in criminal, military, national security, public international law.

“And if he can get there by letting the defendant plead to crimes that are supported by the evidence that the defense lawyer says he really has no problem getting his client to plead to, then it just makes the whole process a lot easier. And then justice is served.”

Stand by. Justice may be served in the end, but we could travel a crooked road to get there. A once-seemingly simple case is suddenly murky.